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Title: Coupling a three-dimensional subsurface flow and transport model with a land surface model to simulate stream–aquifer–land interactions (CP v1.0)

Abstract

A fully coupled three-dimensional surface and subsurface land model is developed and applied to a site along the Columbia River to simulate three-way interactions among river water, groundwater, and land surface processes. The model features the coupling of the Community Land Model version 4.5 (CLM4.5) and a massively parallel multiphysics reactive transport model (PFLOTRAN). The coupled model, named CP v1.0, is applied to a 400 m × 400 m study domain instrumented with groundwater monitoring wells along the Columbia River shoreline. CP v1.0 simulations are performed at three spatial resolutions (i.e., 2, 10, and 20 m) over a 5-year period to evaluate the impact of hydroclimatic conditions and spatial resolution on simulated variables. Results show that the coupled model is capable of simulating groundwater–river-water interactions driven by river stage variability along managed river reaches, which are of global significance as a result of over 30 000 dams constructed worldwide during the past half-century. Our numerical experiments suggest that the land-surface energy partitioning is strongly modulated by groundwater–river-water interactions through expanding the periodically inundated fraction of the riparian zone, and enhancing moisture availability in the vadose zone via capillary rise in response to the river stage change. Meanwhile, CLM4.5 fails tomore » capture the key hydrologic process (i.e., groundwater–river-water exchange) at the site, and consequently simulates drastically different water and energy budgets. Furthermore, spatial resolution is found to significantly impact the accuracy of estimated the mass exchange rates at the boundaries of the aquifer, and it becomes critical when surface and subsurface become more tightly coupled with groundwater table within 6 to 7 meters below the surface. Inclusion of lateral subsurface flow influenced both the surface energy budget and subsurface transport processes as a result of river-water intrusion into the subsurface in response to an elevated river stage that increased soil moisture for evapotranspiration and suppressed available energy for sensible heat in the warm season. The coupled model developed in this study can be used for improving mechanistic understanding of ecosystem functioning and biogeochemical cycling along river corridors under historical and future hydroclimatic changes. The dataset presented in this study can also serve as a good benchmarking case for testing other integrated models.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [2]
  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  2. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  3. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
OSTI Identifier:
1356830
Report Number(s):
SAND2017-2880J
Journal ID: ISSN 1991-959X; 651807
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC04-94AL85000
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Geoscientific Model Development
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 10; Journal Issue: 12; Journal ID: ISSN 1991-959X
Publisher:
European Geosciences Union
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
58 GEOSCIENCES

Citation Formats

Bisht, Gautam, Huang, Maoyi, Zhou, Tian, Chen, Xingyuan, Dai, Heng, Hammond, Glenn, Riley, William, Downs, Janelle, Liu, Ying, and Zachara, John. Coupling a three-dimensional subsurface flow and transport model with a land surface model to simulate stream–aquifer–land interactions (CP v1.0). United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.5194/gmd-2017-35.
Bisht, Gautam, Huang, Maoyi, Zhou, Tian, Chen, Xingyuan, Dai, Heng, Hammond, Glenn, Riley, William, Downs, Janelle, Liu, Ying, & Zachara, John. Coupling a three-dimensional subsurface flow and transport model with a land surface model to simulate stream–aquifer–land interactions (CP v1.0). United States. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2017-35
Bisht, Gautam, Huang, Maoyi, Zhou, Tian, Chen, Xingyuan, Dai, Heng, Hammond, Glenn, Riley, William, Downs, Janelle, Liu, Ying, and Zachara, John. 2017. "Coupling a three-dimensional subsurface flow and transport model with a land surface model to simulate stream–aquifer–land interactions (CP v1.0)". United States. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2017-35. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1356830.
@article{osti_1356830,
title = {Coupling a three-dimensional subsurface flow and transport model with a land surface model to simulate stream–aquifer–land interactions (CP v1.0)},
author = {Bisht, Gautam and Huang, Maoyi and Zhou, Tian and Chen, Xingyuan and Dai, Heng and Hammond, Glenn and Riley, William and Downs, Janelle and Liu, Ying and Zachara, John},
abstractNote = {A fully coupled three-dimensional surface and subsurface land model is developed and applied to a site along the Columbia River to simulate three-way interactions among river water, groundwater, and land surface processes. The model features the coupling of the Community Land Model version 4.5 (CLM4.5) and a massively parallel multiphysics reactive transport model (PFLOTRAN). The coupled model, named CP v1.0, is applied to a 400 m × 400 m study domain instrumented with groundwater monitoring wells along the Columbia River shoreline. CP v1.0 simulations are performed at three spatial resolutions (i.e., 2, 10, and 20 m) over a 5-year period to evaluate the impact of hydroclimatic conditions and spatial resolution on simulated variables. Results show that the coupled model is capable of simulating groundwater–river-water interactions driven by river stage variability along managed river reaches, which are of global significance as a result of over 30 000 dams constructed worldwide during the past half-century. Our numerical experiments suggest that the land-surface energy partitioning is strongly modulated by groundwater–river-water interactions through expanding the periodically inundated fraction of the riparian zone, and enhancing moisture availability in the vadose zone via capillary rise in response to the river stage change. Meanwhile, CLM4.5 fails to capture the key hydrologic process (i.e., groundwater–river-water exchange) at the site, and consequently simulates drastically different water and energy budgets. Furthermore, spatial resolution is found to significantly impact the accuracy of estimated the mass exchange rates at the boundaries of the aquifer, and it becomes critical when surface and subsurface become more tightly coupled with groundwater table within 6 to 7 meters below the surface. Inclusion of lateral subsurface flow influenced both the surface energy budget and subsurface transport processes as a result of river-water intrusion into the subsurface in response to an elevated river stage that increased soil moisture for evapotranspiration and suppressed available energy for sensible heat in the warm season. The coupled model developed in this study can be used for improving mechanistic understanding of ecosystem functioning and biogeochemical cycling along river corridors under historical and future hydroclimatic changes. The dataset presented in this study can also serve as a good benchmarking case for testing other integrated models.},
doi = {10.5194/gmd-2017-35},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1356830}, journal = {Geoscientific Model Development},
issn = {1991-959X},
number = 12,
volume = 10,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Dec 12 00:00:00 EST 2017},
month = {Tue Dec 12 00:00:00 EST 2017}
}